Movie review: Browns-centered Draft Day' not perfect but wins

By
Mark Meszoros, The News-Herald & The Morning Journal

Friday, April 11, 2014

It’s easy to see Browns fans loving “Draft Day,” the new dramedy that follows a fictional version of Cleveland’s professional football team in the hours before and during the first night of the NFL Draft.

It’s also easy to imagine NFL general managers hating it.

The men that head the football operations for these multimillion-dollar businesses come off as nervous, paranoid, panicky and, at times, total jerks. And, hey, maybe they can be all of those things, but their portrayals in the Ivan Reitman-directed film just feels a bit too cartoonish.

Perhaps worse, if you follow the NFL Draft relatively closely, you’ll have a hard time swallowing some of the things that happen — largely the trades made by Browns General Manager Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner), both near the beginning and end of the tale.

All of that said, “Draft Day” is fairly engrossing, taking the audience through a roughly 16-hour period in a surprisingly speedy two hours. And, with much of it shot at the Browns’ real headquarters in Berea, there’s at least some air of authenticity to the proceedings and a reason for the movie to be more popular in these parts than anywhere else.

Why a whole movie about the NFL draft, in which a few hundred college players are selected by the pro teams? In case you’ve been living under a rock, this thing is a big deal. It now takes place over three days — usually in April but this year in May — and it is broadcast not only by the league’s own NFL Network but also its longtime home of ESPN and its sister networks. And those outlets and others devote hundreds of hours to covering the prospects hoping to be drafted high and even put together “mock drafts” that predict who will go where and when.

Also adding an air of authenticity to “Draft Day” are real-life personalities largely associated with the draft, including ESPN’s Chris Berman and Mel Kiper Jr., NFL Network’s Mike Mayock and others.

Heck, we even get to hear local sports talk hosts Tony Rizzo and Aaron Goldhammer of WKNR-AM 850 talk about how big this particular draft is for the Browns. As Rizzo states, Sonny had better do something to turn things around or he “will be gone!”

That’s also strongly hinted at by his boss, Browns owner Anthony Molina (Frank Langella), who tells Sonny that if he doesn’t “make a splash,” he will be forced to make one himself.

Poor Sonny. He’s also just learned that the Browns salary cap expert, Ali (Jennifer Garner), is pregnant with his child. (They’re secretly a couple, but only a few people in Berea know about them.)

Thus, he’s not at his strongest when he agrees to a blockbuster deal with the Seahawks: The Browns get Seattle’s top-overall pick this year in exchange for the Browns’ top pick — the seventh overall — and their first-round picks the following two years. It’s a tremendously steep price. However, there is a quarterback in this year’s draft, Bo Callahan from the University of Wisconsin, who is an Andrew Luck type — a once-only-every-so-often talent. Bo seemingly is a can’t-miss prospect playing the sport’s most important position.

But here’s where things get a bit loopy. Instead of making the trade for the explicit reason of drafting Bo, Sonny tells his staff it’s time to really research the guy — something he admits they should have done more of by this point. (Um, yeah, you think?)

Despite the NFL-wide love for Bo, Sonny can’t shake the idea of drafting a linebacker from Ohio State, Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman of “42”), who impresses Sonny as a football player as much as he does as a person. And then there’s a running back, Ray Jennings (Arian Foster, a star running back for the real Houston Texans), who grew up in Cleveland when his dad played for the Browns. He wants to be a Brown, and he is desperately wanted by the team’s new head coach, Vince Penn (Denis Leary).

As the day wears on, Sonny investigates possible chinks in the armor of Bo, tries to steal a few valuable minutes with Ali and also must deal with a visit from his mother, Barb (Ellen Burstyn), who wants to fulfill the wishes of her late husband and Sonny’s father — a longtime Browns coach fired by his son — by scattering his ashes over the team’s practice field.

All the while, the clock is ticking toward that first pick of the NFL draft.

Much like a football team holding a narrow lead in a game, “Draft Day” feels like it could collapse at any moment. Costner — no stranger to sports movies with credits that include “Bull Durham,” “Field of Dreams” and “Tin Cup” — is fine but nothing special. Plus, you’d like more conflict between him and Ali, who’s very understanding and patient with him on this trying day. (It should come as no surprise that “Draft Day” was written by a couple of guys, not by a woman.) And then there’s that steady stream of occurrences that just don’t ring true if you follow the NFL.

Nonetheless, “Draft Day” does enough to win. Like a good coach, veteran director Reitman (“Ghostbusters,” “No Strings Attached”), working from a script by Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph, makes more good calls than bad ones. Yes, you’ll second-guess him, but just as with a coach, you remember that he knows more than you.

Maybe if you’re not a fan of the team in orange, white and Brown and you’ll get nothing from seeing the team’s real headquarters and practice facility, “Draft Day” will feel like a borderline bust, to put it in draft terms. For the rest of us, this is a reliable starter if not an all-pro.

“Draft Day” — rated PG-13 for brief strong language and sexual references — is in theaters. Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.